I'm glad it's being talked about, though I'm not sure how to have a productive conversation with how it's been set up over the years.
The previous Tory governments openly stated they treated the immigration system as "for-profit", they brought in over 200 changes to immigration laws - not including fee changes - and "private partners" to handle documents for profit. They brought in Biometric Residence Permits for non-EU migrants that meant people who had indefinite leave to remain lost their right/ability to be legally employed unless they could prove residency going back in some cases decades, inflaming the issue people brought up around dependant migrants who were more at risk of not having the right paperwork. Tories were aware of this (as were Labour who started the push towards the permits), the infrastructure issues, the issues in education with lack of support for English as an additional language, and we're dealing with the consequences.
The UK like other countries will have to deal with the population bulge. Migration may be part of the solution, but it's not the only piece and we can't and shouldn't try to rely on it. We also have many issues in adult education that has been stripped away to pieces that makes retraining difficult. We have issues already mentioned within schools where everyone is meant to be ~ aspirational ~, where apprenticeships are discussed by senior leadership teams as "supported for those who need it" with no idea how the process works, and generally is rubbish at looking at what we really need to help society.
…so who is going to do the “low skills” jobs that have been filled by migrant labour? Fruit Picking, Factory work, Hospitality etc? (Apologies for the term “low skilled”). Do you have people in your immediate circle who would do these jobs.
Yes, many. My British husband works in hospitality. Most of the people he works with are also British. I know plenty of people who work in factories and in nearby agriculture, care homes. It feels odd to assume people here wouldn't have people in their immediate circle who aren't already doing these jobs.
I, the migrant, have never worked in any of these areas. I've been willing to, but never hired for that work. They get a lot of applications where I am.
I loathe when people who claim to support migrants have their main argument be about low-paid work or to deal with the population bulge, like the rest of the world's purpose is to be cogs in the British machine, not people. Not only that, but it erases the significant portion of migrants over the decades who've come on family visas and been family carers for in-laws and then their own families. It erases a significant portion who become unemployed and the issues many face in converting qualifications or spending years out of work, even when highly educated (the latter can actually cause problems as there are some programmes to retrain if you don't have a higher qualification, but if you do, but they aren't really recognised, things get difficult).
Also, the vast majority of migrants are not coming here desperate as many seem to be trying to frame us as. I may have arrived with a couple bags and a few hundred I'd scrounged together, but I had contacts in the UK, there was a plan, if it hadn't worked out, yes I would have returned to my country of origin. That's a fairly normal immigration plan, the idea that we all come with no clue whatsoever does come across as assuming immigrants are all reckless fools. I was a teenager when I arrived, but I wasn't entirely brainless.